European readers, I have some good news. This morning I was added to the speakers’ list for this fantastic conference coming up next month in Rome. My TAC Big Cheese Boss Johnny Burtka will be there too:

“God, Honor, Country: President Ronald Reagan, Pope John Paul II, and the Freedom of Nations—A National Conservatism Conference”

Today, everyone knows that Europe is at a crossroads. The rise of nationalism in Europe and America, and throughout the democratic world, is seen by many as a threat to the post-War liberal order. But others regard the renewed emphasis on patriotism and the freedom of nations as a continuation of the best political traditions of the last century. So is the new national conservatism a menace or is it—on the contrary—a virtue?

This international conference in Rome will seek to answer this question. It is John Paul II’s centennial year, and we will begin by revisiting the historic alliance between an American President and a Polish Pope that defeated Communism and succeeded in re-establishing national independence, self-determination, and religious freedom in Eastern Europe after 1989.

The conference will then shift its focus 40 years forward, to our own day, examining the fate of the national independence, self-determination, and religious freedom under the rule of the European Union. In particular, we will ask: Is the freedom of nations that was promised a generation ago still desirable in our time? And if it is, what must be done to achieve it?

Joining us to discuss these pressing questions will be Amb. Anna Maria Anders, Christopher DeMuth, Rod Dreher, Amb. Callista Gingrich, Yoram Hazony, Ryszard Legutko, Marion Maréchal, Giorgia Meloni, Douglas Murray, Prime Minister Viktor Orban, John O’Sullivan, Matteo Salvini, and many more.

The conference will also mark the publication of Yoram Hazony’s award-winning Le virtù del nazionalismo in Italy.

The conference will be sponsored by the Bow Group (UK), Center for European Renewal (Netherlands), Danube Institute (Hungary), Edmund Burke Foundation (US), Herzl Institute (Israel), International Reagan Thatcher Society (US), and Nazione Futura (Italy).

I will be giving a talk about my forthcoming book (September) about the lessons for us today, regarding resisting the rising soft totalitarianism, from the anti-communist resistance.

Everyone is invited. Buy your ticket here. Look at that line-up — this is going to be a fantastic conference. What is National Conservatism? Check out this YouTube speech Yoram Hazony gave at last year’s first Nat Con conference in Washington.

I will be booking my flight in the next day or so. I recall that some Roman readers of The Benedict Option had written me in the past to ask if I would be willing to come to Rome to give a talk about it. I had several requests, but I can’t find them all now. Well, I will be in Rome very soon, so if you will get in touch with me (rod — at — amconmag — dot — com), and we can work something out, I will be willing to stay in Rome for two or three days after the conference to come address you. Also, I have never been to Montecassino or Subiaco, two sites significant in the life of St. Benedict, my patron, so maybe I can work that in. Plans are fluid, so write me!